St. Matthew’s Ev. Lutheran Church + Benton Harbor, Michigan

2^ND Sunday of End Time, 7 November, 1999

Text: Matthew 25:31-46

"Love is the evidence of righteousness"

By Vicar Michael Paul Sullivan

31 "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. 34 "Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.' 37 "Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'

40 "The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.' 41 "Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.' 44 "They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?' 45 "He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.' 46 "Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life." This is the word of the LORD.

Grace and peace be to you from our returning King, Jesus Christ. Dear Christian friends,

One night I had dream about judgement day. I remember it so clearly. Trumpets were sounding. The sun stopped shinning and the moon looked like a puddle of blood. I remember the darkness that surrounded me, and everyone was lifted up into heaven; bumping into each other on the way up. Everyone was scared and didn’t know what was happening. A bright golden light came from God’s throne ahead of me.

My dream then turned into a nightmare. The mass started to separate from each other, and there I was ON THE LEFT SIDE OF THE THRONE! My stomach dropped. What could I do? I’m on the wrong side! My heart raced anxiously, knowing the coming doom. I listened as the king talked about the deeds of the righteous: deeds I didn’t do. I watched as the gates of heaven opened and as they all went to His side. Then the King and all the righteous looked at me with blazing eyes.

I suddenly awoke. My heart was racing. I poured cold water on my face to wake up and calm down. What bothered me about my dream was that it seemed as if everybody was judged by what they did. Our text also seems that way. Not once does the King mention that the righteous are saved because he died for them. Are we judged on the basis of our deeds?

The answer to that question is actually quite simple. In court, evidence is brought forth to show whether a person is innocent or guilty. The evidence doesn’t make a person guilty or innocent, but it publicly shows everyone what he already is. In the same way, deeds don’t make us righteous, but they are the evidence of faith God will point to on the last day. Let us then look at how Love is the evidence of righteousness. Love the damned don’t express, and love the delivered don’t express knowingly.

1) Love the damned don’t express

Unlike my dream, Judgment Day will be a lot brighter than the darkness I imagined. The Bible says that God will come in all his glory and splendor. It will be marvelous sight. Billions and Billions of people, everyone who ever walked this earth, will be raised to life to meet God in the sky. The mass of humanity before the throne will be like looking at the sands on the sea shore.

The masses will be separated into two groups: believers and unbelievers. This separation is already an act of judgement. No more can an unbeliever become a believer or visa versa. Judgement is passed and there is no changing it. All that remains is for our glorious King, Jesus Christ to read the verdict.

The King calls those on his left, “you who are cursed.” They were already in the state of being cursed before the last day came. The King verifies their guilt (as a judge verifies the guilt of a murder in court) by pointing to the evidence.

Six simple lowly deeds are brought forth as evidence. Notice that the Ten Commandments are not brought forth. The judge doesn’t say to them, “You murdered. You committed adultery. You worshiped other gods.” He doesn’t accuse them of the evil they did. He points out to them the love they didn’t show. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.' Now if the deeds of love that they didn’t do are worthy of damnation in hell, imagine how damning their evil deeds are.

But don’t unbelievers do outwardly good deeds? Yet the Savior doesn’t mention even one. I know of many an atheist who gives to the poor. Is the evidence skewed in God’s court? Notice that the king says that the cursed didn’t do these deeds for Jesus. So why were their “good” deeds lacking in Jesus sight? A passage in Hebrews tells us, “And without faith it is impossible to please God.” They lacked faith. Only faith takes hold the Christ’s perfect righteousness so that we can stand before God. God himself creates faith in our hearts through the Gospel. Paul says in his letter to the Romans, “For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith."

Not one of the deeds of the cursed was done out of love for the Savior. The damned expressed no evidence of faith, therefore they are not righteous. This is why God pronounces them guilty. They were all guilty of unrighteousness from the beginning, and all the evidence supports that verdict. Their condemnation is the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels: In other words: hell.

Even though the damned don’t express love to the Savior as evidence of their faith, sometimes we still have to hang our heads in shame when we look at their deeds on a human level. Now it is true that guilt or pride motivates them to do the “good” that they do, and this is not proper motivation in God’s sight. But what are our deeds like, who have the correct motivation, in comparison with theirs? On a human level, we sometimes find ourselves lacking.

Just look at all the different religions, and how people, who try to earn their way into heaven, give a lot of money to their religion. Yet we, who are saved by grace, may struggle to give that extra dollar to Church. Look at how many false witnesses go door to door with great zeal trying to convert people to their false beliefs, and trying to earn heaven in the process. Do we, who already possess heaven, have the same zeal to save a people who are dying in unbelief around us?

If we would compare our deeds, on an outward level, with those of other religions, how would we rank? I am ashamed to say this about myself, but my outward deeds certainly lack in comparison to some of my Muslim acquaintances. But, thanks be to God, we aren’t judged on the basis of how much or what we do. God looks for faith, which receives the salvation Jesus won for us. Faith naturally produces the desire to serve the LORD, and others, in love. When we, because of our sinful nature, fail to show love, God is right there to admonish and forgiven us. This forgiveness, through faith, once again motivates us to serve: serve him and others in true and proper love.

Love is the evidence of righteousness, because it is the evidence of faith. The damned don’t express love for the Savior, and this is why they are condemned. But what about the delivered? Our text tells us that they don’t express love – that is, they don’t express it knowingly.

2) Love the delivered don’t express knowingly

The Judge calls those on the right: you who are blessed by my Father, and later the righteous. Believers are already in the state of being blessed. The Greek word translated “blessed” literally means, “good worded.” We all have been good worded: declared righteous by God, and are already living in this state. God declared us righteous before he created the world, when he chose us and wrote our names in the book of life. When Jesus came to suffer and die for the sins of the world, God’s declaration was made effective. Jesus resurrection showed the world God’s declaration of righteousness over mankind and it’s power. God applied this declaration of righteousness to us individually when he brought us to faith. God will publicly declare us righteous on last day, when he fully gives us what we already now possess through faith.

We are already righteous in God’s sight: righteous through faith. Jesus, in our text, points to six deeds of love, which are the evidence of our faith. These deeds aren’t great miracles or heroic acts. They are all simple acts of love: love that we show others. All the deeds of the righteous were done to Jesus, because they were done out of faith. This is why they are pleasing to God. We are saved by grace through faith, and love is the evidence, the fruit and the beautiful flower of faith.

Not even one thing the righteous did wrong was mention did. Because our deeds are done out of faith, no matter how incomplete or failing they are, Jesus sees them as perfect. Our deeds are made perfect through the righteousness Jesus won for us.

Another interesting thing is that the righteous didn’t even know that they were serving the king by what they did. What they did in life, they did out faith and love for the Savior. That’s all. We also don’t think twice about earning heaven. We know that we have already been declared righteous through Jesus and already have the promise of heaven. The love we naturally express for Jesus is the public evidence that we are righteous: righteous by faith!

Remember the dream I had, and how scared I was about being on the wrong side of the judgement throne. I was scared because I was afraid that I didn’t do enough to earn heaven. But Jesus doesn’t want us to do anything to earn heaven. He has already declared us forgiven through His work on the cross. We have received our righteousness through faith. Because of this we never have to be scared of being on the wrong side of the judgement throne. Through faith you are already righteous and heaven is yours! With this knowledge we can look forward to Jesus return. Jesus said, “Behold I am coming soon.” Amen. Come Lord Jesus. Amen.